Thursday 8 September 2016 07:16, UK
Stan Wawrinka outlasted a fading Juan Martin del Potro in four sets to secure his place in the US Open semi-finals.
The double Grand Slam winner ended a rousing fightback by the Argentine to finally progress 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 6-3 6-2 in the early hours of Thursday at New York's Flushing Meadows.
Del Potro, the 2009 winner, had missed nine successive slams due to a string of wrist surgeries before returning to Wimbledon, where he conquered Wawrinka in the second round and went on to claim silver at the Rio Olympics.
Swiss star Wawrinka, the 2014 Australian Open winner and 2015 French Open champion, will next meet sixth seed Kei Nishikori of Japan, US Open runner-up two years ago, who upset Andy Murray in five sets.
Friday's other semi-final will pit world No 1 Novak Djokovic against French 10th seed Gael Monfils.
Wawrinka, who had to save a match point in his third round clash with Dan Evans, will be playing in a third US Open semi-final in four years.
"It was one of my toughest matches mentally and physically. Juan Martin's an incredible player," said Wawrinka.
"I tried to make longer rallies. I tried to go back a little bit to make him play more balls, keep him on the backhand side and tried to dictate."
Del Potro, the world No 142 and bidding to become the lowest ranked man to reach a Grand Slam semi-final in 16 years, stormed out of the blocks to lead Wawrinka 4-1 in the opening set.
The Swiss broke back in the seventh game and although Del Potro saved two set points in the tie-break, a rare forehand error was enough to give up the set.
The Argentine's bruising recent schedule, including his efforts at the Olympics in Brazil, and he used that experience to claim the only break for a 4-3 lead in the second set.
But Wawrinka looked the fresher as the clock ticked past 1am (US time) to secure the third set and as Del Potro finally wilted to his opponent's power.
The Argentine was in tears as he embraced his conqueror at the net but at least he can reflect on the compensation of returning to the top 65 after being ranked as low as 1,045 in February.
